Just Cause takes place on the (fictional) Caribbean island of San Esperito. The player can drive nearly every vehicle under the sun, as well as climb about on them while moving at high speeds and jumping onto other nearby cars, trucks, tanks, helicopters, etc. Notable for the inclusion of a grappling hook, which allows Rico to rappel onto moving vehicles from a distance, and a parachute, which allows for all manner of aerial stunts.
The game provides examples of:
- Banana Republic: The dictatorship of San Esperito.
- Big Bad: General Mendoza.
- Car Fu: The bulk of the possible stunts fall into this category.
- The Cartel: The Rioja and Montano factions.
- Color-Coded Armies: La Résistance is Green, Mendoza's army is Grey, the allied Rioja Cartel is Yellow, and the enemy Montano Cartel is Violet.
- Conspiracy Placement: The vehicles provided to Rico by the allegedly top-secret Agency all bear a black paintjob adorned with a large Agency seal.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- While there's action to be had, the game lacks the gratuitous explosions and wanton destruction the later games are famous for.
- The game also features the police force as an enemy faction, while in all subsequent games their function is fulfilled by the army or some other militia (the police were planned to be included in all four games, but ultimately cut from the latter three).
- This game is also the only one where the Big Bad is given genuine sympathetic qualities, and is portrayed as more of a bumbling fool than his more darkly comedic successors (a deleted scene involving Mendoza shows that he was originally going to be even more comedic).
- Enemy Civil War: The Montano Cartel are allegedly Mendoza's buddies, but it doesn't stop the cops and military from shooting at them on sight, which makes you wonder how many of them know about El Presidente's dealings with them.
- Excuse Plot: You're there to overthrow an evil dictator. Politics? What politics?
- Flat Character: The writer, Christofer Sundberg, has said he felt Rico was this and the game is an Old Shame.
- The Generalissimo: Salvador Mendoza; he did not get much character development, but he definitely looked the part.
- Guns Akimbo: Only with the standard revolvers.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: The first version of the game is a primitive implementation compared to the sequels. The grapple occupies a weapon slot (and needs to be selected), and can only latch on to vehicles (where Rico can either paraglide or reel in to hijack).
- Latino Is Brown: Averted. San Esperito is clearly a Latin American country, but most of its residents appear to be Caucasian. Same story with Rodriguez.
- Save-Game Limits: Saved games seem limited to either mission completion, or by using a radio from the save point.
- Save Point: The safe spots have what appears to be a radio system, which serves to save the game. The game also prompts to save the game when a mission is completed.
- Shout-Out: Rico is drawn similar to Che Guevara on the cover.
- Soft Water: No matter what height you fall from, if there's a deep and spacious enough body of water down there, Rico will be fine.
- Spinning Paper: The cutscene after killing Kleiner (a Nazi scientist) is a propaganda article about the Arms Fair gun money helping children, and an article about terrorists attacking a train.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When Rico confronts Salvador Mendoza on his plane, Mendoza claims, "I must warn you, I have seen Air Force One six times, and I assure you, the President always wins". Rico quips that that doesn't matter because The Good Guys Always Win, and he's the good guy.